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No restrictions on ‘T’ acceptable, warns KCR

‘There is no need to concede special rights to a select group’

Plainspeak:TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao along with party secretary general K. Keshava Rao (right) and MP G. Vivekanand (left) addressing the media after meeting the Group of Ministers at North Block, in New Delhi on Tuesday.- Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Tuesday warned the Centre that any attempt to impose restrictions on the proposed State of Telangana would create more problems than solving them.

“The move will aggravate the animosities between Telugu-speaking people of different regions. Therefore, the new State should be on a par with other 28 States of the country,” TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao categorically told the Group of Ministers here.

Accompanied by TRS secretary-general K. Keshava Rao and Peddapalli MP G.Vivekanand, the party chief expressed shock and dismay at media reports about the far-reaching proposals made by the Antony Committee. If these were true, they would run against the basic tenets of the Constitution by creating a special class of privileged people in Hyderabad, he said.

Elaborating, he said Telangana people had agitated against the manipulative and exploitative class. “Any attempt to mollify this class and perpetuate their hegemony in Hyderabad will negate the very purpose of creation of a new State,” he was quoted as telling the Union Ministers.

Speaking on the status of Hyderabad, he said the city was the only growth engine for entire Telangana. Any attempt to strip the democratically elected government of Telangana of its legitimate powers will debilitate the very State apparatus, he said.

The TRS leaders in their additional note to the GoM reportedly said the move to entrust law and order to an agency other than State government smacked of distrust on Telangana police. It stated that Hyderabad police Act was endorsed by judiciary and there was no injustice to anybody in the last 150 years of its existence.

“When the Constitution of India guarantees equal rights to all its citizens, there is no need to concede special rights to a select group, which is against the fundamental right of equality,” the report mentioned.

The report specifically stated that the party was going to oppose what it called illegal projects outside the Krishna basin such as Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanti, Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanti, Kandelru, Somasila, Veligodu, Veligonda, Chitravati balancing reservoir and Lingala canal.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Rao said tinkering with the administration of Telangana in the name of law and order would not be tolerated and acceptable to the party.